reflection

A number of our Jesus-Justice-Joy weekly reflections lately have focused on Joy, and this one will too.

“But,” you say, “Orin! How can that be? Lent begins this week. Don’t you know that Lent is all sad and repentant and morose and sackcloth and ashes and other depressing things?”

Well, I know it’s Lent, yes, but Lent need not be those things, at least not overly so. Indeed we ought to be repentant, and sad for our sinfulness. And, further, knowing our sinfulness led Jesus to his suffering and death on the cross, well, sure, we can be sad and even grieve these things.

But to do so without also knowing there’s more to the story is to, in a sense, make an idol out of only one tiny facet of our faith. We must always take our faith as a whole – it’s not like during Advent we forget for four weeks that Jesus did actually come to ransom captive Israel. It’s not like during Lent we should remember only the repentance, the suffering, the death. We should also, while celebrating these things, remember that there is new life that arises from these very same things – there is joy and even more celebrating to come.

Did you catch, there, that we “celebrate,” even in Lent? It’s true. There’s an expression, in Latin, that goes:

Lex orandi, lex credendi

Which is to say, in English: “The law of prayer is the law of belief.” Even more simply, we pray what we believe, and we believe what we pray. With that in mind, let’s turn to a prayer that we will hear and pray together very soon:

Each year you give us this joyful season when we prepare to celebrate the paschal mystery with mind and heart renewed. You give us a spirit of loving reverence for you, our Father, and of willing service to our neighbor. As we recall the great events that gave us new life in Christ, you bring the image of your Son to perfection within us. (Preface for the 1st Sunday of Lent)

We pray that lent is a “joyful season” in which we prepare to “celebrate” the paschal mystery – Christ’s redemptive suffering, death, and resurrection. And, as we ponder these things, we become more Christ-like through the power of God perfecting that image within us.

Wow.

So, I (Orin) have attached to this post an image. This Wednesday, after our parish school’s 8th graders lead music ministry at one of our morning masses, I’ll be giving them each one of these – hopefully to remind them that Lent, which we should dive into whole-heartedly and intensely, is only one part of a broader story, a broader mystery, which as a whole tells us where we’ve come from, who we are now and who we should strive to be, and the future that awaits us all if we help each other grow in faith and holiness.

In the summer of 2005, I led a small group of youth and adults to Cologne, Germany for World Youth Day. If you’ve never been to a World Youth Day gathering, I recommend you try and go at least once in your life. WYD is a two week-long experience of celebrating our Catholic faith, getting…

It’s always a great joy of ours to visit Holy Childhood in Mascoutah, IL for Catholic Schools Week. Just such an engaged student body, and a joy to play with band-mates Rick and Dan, and today Dan’s girlfriend Katie on tambourine.

Starting tonight, Orin (today’s blogger) will again be attending the 20th annual Liturgical Composers Forum in suburban St. Louis. This gathering was begun by Fr. John Foley, SJ two decades ago, at the time a program of the now largely non-existent Center for Liturgy at SLU. These few days bring together some of the most familiar…

One of the reasons I want to blog regularly is so that I can have a place to document my faith journey. All of us are called through our baptism to be ministers of the Gospel. I believe that in sharing my experience of trying to live Christ each and every day, I am in…

It’s my (Orin’s) turn again at Any Given Sunday Project to write a Sunday Scripture reflection, this one for this coming Sunday, January 14. The psalm of the weekend holds a special place in my heart, and is central to a story often told at Oddwalk appearances. Here’s an abbreviated version of what you may…

Last night, a dastardly collection of villains gathered in Fulton, MO to ring in the new year. In attendance was Lucius Malfoy, Dracula, the big bad wolf, representatives from AT&T and Sprint, a shark, a baby shark, the Queen of Hearts, Darth Vader, Catwoman, Dru, a minion, two instances of Stan Kronke, and Mike Matheney.…

I’d like to begin this week with the song, To Know Darkness, beautifully written by Orin and included on our 2007 album, Walk Away Different. Take a moment to listen to the song. I’ve included the lyrics here as well… God our Father, we long to see you as you are. If we seek you…

It is hopefully no surprise to anyone by now that the Church has entered another new year, as always beginning with the season of Advent. It should also surprise no one when I (Orin) observe that some places have been in full-on Christmas mode since November 1, if not before.

Many of our peers in Church life, be they youth ministers, liturgists, priests, or the faithful baptized are bothered, perhaps even perturbed by the rush into the Christmas celebrations, and that by 7pm on December 25, some trees have already been kicked to the curb. “One thing at a time,” they exclaim. “We need more stillness, silence, waiting, expectation in our lives. We need to remember the Lord is coming again! We need to remember our traditions and our history.”

I suspect I can speak for Shannon too, but I certainly don’t disagree with any of that. I am at the same time not so sure how much the angsty “Waaaaaaaah it’s still advent and also get off my lawn” sorts of statements and social media posts help. Perhaps it’s just venting among friends, but I don’t think it’ll “convert” anyone to a certain way of seeing things, in this case the need we all have for a few weeks of advent in our lives.

A few days ago I posted this as a comment on a friend’s facebook status – a status that was more tongue-in-cheek than anything – but was still one about how Christmas had begun too soon.

Working at a Catholic shrine where a christmas drivethru of lights began a week (or sometimes more) before thanksgiving and the first thing one saw was a giant arch that said “Merry Christmas” across the top, I feel your pain. I used to be rather “vinegar” about it all; I try to be a little more “sugar” these days.

So, to that end, We at Oddwalk crafted a little video, one that is itself goofy and tongue-in-cheek, but attempts to use humor to remind folks, “Hey, don’t forget it’s still Advent around here.” Hopefully this little bit of sugar will go further than some folks’ vinegar this time of year. We are better evangelists when we do so with joy, after all. So, check out what happens when you take some cheery advent songs and change them from major to minor. Advent blessings to you all. —Orin

This past Friday, our parish lost our pastor, Fr. Frank Bussmann. Late on Thursday night, after spending Thanksgiving with his family, Fr. Frank headed for home. He only managed to get about ten minutes down the road before he suffered a massive stroke behind the wheel, causing him to crash his car. Luckily, no one else…

This past week, Orin and I had the great privilege of serving in a variety of roles at the National Catholic Youth Conference in Indianapolis. For much of Thursday, Friday and Saturday, he and I were on a dead-run hosting the Music and Message Stage, leading music at two Masses, and even getting to do…

I don’t know about you, but when I think about Jesus, I prefer to think of sinner-pardonin’, loaves and fishes multiplyin’, ear-healin’ Jesus. It makes me uncomfortable to think about table-turnin’, Peter-scoldin’, Gehenna-throwin’-into Jesus. Jesus is supposed to be nice, right? Surely a God who loves us wouldn’t ever turn us away, right? RIGHT?! Well,…

Well, Oddwalk is pretty busy right now, gearing up for NCYC in couple weeks, and largely for the Music and Message Stage we have helped put together and will be hosting and emcees for. That’s why this Jesus-Justice-Joy post is a day late, and relatively brief.

Part of our getting ready for these things, as it often is, is putting together a slide show we hope adds to the engagement and humor of our being in front of folks. The slide here presented won’t make a lot of sense out of context, but we still won’t bother giving you any, because you don’t need any for it to be funny anyway.

Yes, that’s Young Orin, and no, his speech bubble is not factual. Pretty sure, anyway.

Today’s turn in our J-J-J rotation is “Jesus” and I (Orin) am struck by, given this work we’ve just been doing, how far I’ve coming in letting myself be presented publicly as a bit foolish, or someone to be derided for. I don’t think some years ago I would have ever let that happen, but these days, especially in the name of Jesus, it’s quite okay, perhaps even preferred.

By society’s eyes, Jesus was made a fool of during his passion and death – ridiculed and subjected to public scorn, and to a much lesser extant most of the time, that is still a part of being a Christian today – being a witness to Christ demands it, in our effort to become more like him.

So, enjoy this passing glimpse of Young Orin, and know that when this photo is on display before 25,000 young folks gathered at NCYC in a couple weeks, it’s all for the greater glory of God.

This Tuesday, October 24, Oddwalk turns thirteen years old. Happy Oddiversary to us! We expect to celebrate our jump into these adolescent years by staring at our phones while someone is speaking to us, gushing about our favorite YouTuber, and rolling our eyes at Mom’s “oldies” radio station as it pumps out ancient hits by…

Among other things which is giving quite a lot of Americans something I (Orin) might call “News Fatigue,” you have the issue of some NFL players protesting racial injustices by kneeling during the national anthem before their games. [Sidebar: I might suggest reading up sometime on why the heck the anthem is played at sporting events at all.]

Anyway, as some have noted, regardless of what the national anthem signifies, those who kneel during the anthem aren’t any more protesting a flag than Rosa Parks was protesting a bus. It’s not the object or the moment which is under protest, but rather a moment in time to show one’s dissatisfaction. The Black Lives Matter movement has been very active lately in St. Louis following what is seen by many as an unjust verdict a month or so ago. The group elicits a wide spectrum of reactions from folks; I don’t mean to get into that exactly, other than to note they do organize their protests for times and places which both get people to notice, and to realize something symbolic about that particular place and time.

The tricky thing about symbols, like, say, flags, is they can mean different things to different people, and no one person gets to tell someone else what that symbol ought to mean, or that their interpretation of it is incorrect. Perhaps a certain flag to one person might symbolize freedom, bravery, and sacrifice; to another it might symbolize a nation that even over 150 years after a civil war was fought continues to, by action or inaction, let a large percentage of its citizens down in a variety of ways.

And sure, the same aspects of interpretation of symbols holds true for, for instance, flags of former nations that oppressed or killed certain humans for merely being a certain race or creed. The difference is, I hope it’s apparent, is that those who erected those flags lost wars to those who erected ours so that people could, within constitutional reason, live and express themselves as they see fit. And, while such goals were explicitly forbidden for some people under certain flags, it is also true that under ours, not all feel as if what our flag represents to some is a reality for all.

And a small addendum – if you are among the people annoyed by all this chatter on the matter, especially if all you wanted to do on Sunday afternoon was “just watch football,” then I dare say the protests are working. Your minor irritation or perhaps inconvenience is a necessary part of these things, you know, as is conversation on the matter.

So, let’s actually talk. I certainly am aware that I have friends on any and all sides of matters like these. So, if conversation arises here, fantastic. Please, just be respectful, read comments for content, and double-check how entrenched your views are, how dug in your heels are. I will try to be and do those things, anyway.

Lastly, if all we want is unity, I think this is the way, the only way there. Uniformity as a means to an end (unity) will most certainly fail. So, let’s talk.

I’m pretty lazy. It’s true. Ask around. I’ve been this way for a long time. If I can find a way to not do something or find a shortcut so I don’t have to work very hard, I’m in. I know this is a character flaw. I know it’s not good. I’m a work in…

Hi all. Shannon and Orin both are contributors at anygivensundayproject.org once or twice and year, and in fact have back-to-back reflections on the Sunday scriptures there right now. Orin wrote a bit about yesterday’s challenging Gospel passage, and Shannon wrote about this coming Sunday’s readings. We’ve posted theme here as well. But, keep visiting anygivensundayproject.org…

I started writing songs in 1995, when I was twenty years-old. I truly had no idea what I was doing, of course. I knew I liked the challenge of creating something new, but lacked any real knowledge of poetry and/or music theory. In those days, I would simply write the best song I could and…